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Poultry management
Poultry management usually refers to the husbandry practices or production techniques that help to maximize the efficiency of production. Sound management practices are very essential to optimize production. Scientific poultry management aims at maximizing returns with minimum investment. A carefully controlled environment that avoids crowding, chilling, overheating, or frightening is almost universal in poultry farming. Cannibalism, which expresses itself as toe picking, feather picking, and tail picking, is controlled by debeaking at one day of age and by other management practices. The feeding, watering, egg gathering, and cleaning operations are highly mechanized. Birds are usually housed in wire cages with two or three animals per cage, depending on the species and breed, and three or four tiers of cages superposed to save space. Cages for egg-laying birds have been found to increase production, lower mortality, reduce cannibalism, lower feeding requirements, reduce diseases and parasites, improve culling, and reduce both space and labour requirements.
Biosecurity is a practice designed to prevent the spread of diseases in poultry farms. It is accomplished by maintaining the facility in such a way that there is minimal traffic of biological organisms (viruses, bacteria, rodents, vermin etc.) across its borders (Gernat, 2000). The objective of this work was to determine the level of adoption within the Algerian poultry farms (broiler chickens, laying hens) of a range of standard biosecurity practices (isolation, traffic control,...
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Damage By Rodents Did you know that a single rat eats as much as 20 to 40 pounds of feed a year? Multiply this by 1000 and you can experience a loss that will impact feed conversion that will affect your bottom line. It has been estimated that rodents can increase poultry feed usage by as much as 2%. When the weather cools, mice and rats move indoors and can wreak havoc on not only feed conversion as well as jeopardize bird health and damage...
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Rapid increases in the cost of fuel has forced broiler producers to reassess their energy conservation practices. Most of the energy used in poultry production is used for brooding and adverse weather conditions can favor survival needs before productivity. Growth rate declines while feed consumption rises. Respiratory disease problems are more prevalent because of reduced air quality and utility costs increase, even while the grower attempts to maintain comfortable house conditions. These...
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Planting just three rows of trees around poultry farms can cut nuisance emissions of dust, ammonia, and odors from poultry houses and aid in reducing neighbor complaints, according to scientists from the University of Delaware. Some of the emissions were cut by almost half, George W. Malone, Ph.D., and colleagues said here today at the 236th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). Trees also provide farms with the added benefit of reducing energy consumption, he...
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As the hot summer months approach producers’ attention is turned to management methods designed to maintain productivity during elevated ambient temperatures. For broiler and turkey meat producers, getting the birds to continue eating and efficiently converting their feed source to weight gain is the overall objective. The effects of heat stress have been well documented in relation to feed consumption, weight gain and house efficiency in broilers. In extreme heat situations, keeping birds...
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Obtaining accurate body weights is a critical part of the process of rearing replacement broiler breeder pullets and managing breeder hens and males. From the first few weeks of age in the pullet house, all feed allocations are determined by the bird's weekly weight gains. Obtaining accurate body weights is very important to maintaining uniformity, body conformation and the overall development of pullets and young cockerels. Research has shown that accurately and uniformly controlling body...
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Wild birds can be a nagging problem on any poultry farm. Wild birds can create a mess with their droppings, consume feed, contaminate feed and damage insulation (Berry, 2003). Wild birds have also been shown to carry Newcastle disease, coccidiosis, Salmonella, fowl pox, West Nile Virus, fowl cholera, Mycoplasma galisepticum (MG), round worms, tape worms, Northern Fowl Mites and several other maladies affecting poultry (McLean, 1994). Clearly, wild birds are undesirable in or around poultry...
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Darkling beetles have long been a serious problem for the poultry industry – spreading disease, destroying insulation, and consuming poultry feed, which ultimately means eating away profits. Bayer Animal Health now offers a new addition to their product lineup for darkling beetle control – Credo™ SC Insecticide. This new weapon contains the active ingredient imidacloprid, effective against adult and larval darkling beetles ( Alphitobius diaperinus ). Credo SC utilizes a class of...
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It is quite common for some hens in small flocks to suddenly begin consuming eggs. This is a habit, that once formed, is very difficult to eliminate. In fact, sometimes the only way to prevent the problem is to eliminate the offending hen. Hens will sometimes begin consuming eggs when an egg breaks by accident. Any method you can use to reduce the number of broken eggs available to the hens will help prevent them from consuming more eggs. A few general management strategies will...
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The type of housing and stocking densities of egg laying hens has become a growing concern for the egg laying industry and a point of interest for animal welfare conscious consumers. The typical conventional battery caged hen in Alberta receives 432 square centimetres floor area. New requirements in the European Union (EU) will require all hens by 2012 to be provided with enriched cages and receive 750 square centimetres of floor area per bird. The EU decision was driven by the recognition that...
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More than 80 professionals from the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary and Germany attended the broiler ventilation seminar organised by Cobb Germany and AGE Company at the Czech Tech Agro Fair. High feed prices, energy and fuel costs have made the broiler business very challenging and focused attention on energy saving and better performance, said Lubor Skalka, Cobb Germany market manager. One of the most critical factors is the adequate ventilation in the broiler house,...
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A recent study at the University of Alberta was designed to help understand what factors contribute to the ‘romantic’ and not just aggressive aspects of procreation in male broiler breeder chickens. The study to determine whether or not roosters were aggressive with females and other males in smaller group settings was undertaken by U of A’s researcher Frank Robinson along with Master of Science student Adrienne Herron, livestock welfare technology transfer specialist with Alberta Agriculture...
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Red mites could be a potential source of salmonella transmission between birds and flocks, according to one biosecurity expert. "While it is well known that mites can transmit diseases such as fowl cholera, fowl typhoid and the chicken pox virus the fact they feed by sucking blood means they can also theoretically transmit salmonella through contaminated blood," explained Kiotechagil's Mike Rogers. Mites, both the red mite and the northern fowl mite have long been...
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A Poultry CRC-funded epidemiological survey of Australian broiler flocks has indicated that one of the protective factors against Marek's Disease virus may be the use of wood-based litter 1 . A survey of farms across the Australian broiler industry was conducted to establish the prevalence of serotype 1 Marek’s Disease virus (MDV1) in dust collected from the sheds at the end of the batch and to identify risk factors...
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Flies may be more than a mere nuisance. They may also spread food poisoning bacteria like Salmonella enteritidis to chickens and their eggs. Agricultural Research Service (ARS) microbiologist Peter S. Holt and entomologist Christopher J. Geden found that the common housefly, Musca domestica, readily picks up bacteria from its surroundings. When the chickens eat the flies, the bacteria get inside the birds. Holt works in the Egg Safety and Quality Research Unit at the ARS Richard B....
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The purpose of this fact sheet is to briefly describe the concepts associated with composting poultry mortalities. Composting is an aerobic (oxygen present), biological process by which organic materials, including poultry carcasses, are reduced to soil-like materials. Anaerobic (without oxygen) reduction can be defined simply as putrification. Each process involves different species of microorganisms and each process produces different intermediate products. Microbial activity requires...
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Cannibalism in fowl is a costly and vicious habit that poultry producers can not afford to ignore. It may occur at any age among all breeds, strains and sexes of fowl. Cannibalism usually occurs when the birds are stressed by a poor management practice. Once becoming stressed, one bird begins picking the feathers, comb, toes or vent of another bird. Once an open wound or blood is visible on the bird, the vicious habit of cannibalism can spread rapidly through the entire flock. If you...
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Steve Leeson, Ph.D., from the University of Guelph, recently revealed new findings on the importance of chick nutritional strategies. Leeson was sponsored by Alltech, a global leader in animal health, to present his findings at the International Poultry Expo, held in Atlanta, Georgia. His findings exhibited the importance and impact of a comprehensive nutritional strategy for chicks during the first seven days out of the egg, which would in turn yield heavier birds at 42...
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Preliminary results from a Poultry CRC project being undertaken by DPI&F Queensland examining the reuse of chicken litter across broiler cycles have indicated that levels of food-borne pathogens are not any higher in re-used litter than those found in single-batch rearing. The Project Leader, QDPI&F's Nalini Chinivasagam, commenced litter trials on two farms in June last year with the aim of understanding the relationship between current...
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The immune system of hens is affected by heat. This can be used to improve hen health to the benefit of producers and consumers. A bit of heat is a good thing. And if hens are just a teensy bit stressed due to heat, then that is a good thing too. Scientists from the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences at the University of Aarhus have shown that mild heat stress can actually improve the health of laying hens. Healthier hens improve both production and food safety – to the benefit of...
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